[Greenbuilding] Upgrading a 1959 1800 sf building in Montreal

[Paul Eldridge]

Hi Stewart,

Assuming your current oil-fired boiler is 60 per cent efficient, this 
suggests a space heating (and DHW?) demand of about 32,000 kWh per 
annum.  At $0.93 per cubic meter, the operating costs of a natural gas 
boiler with a 98% AFUE are approximately $3,000.00 per year.  Assuming 
all energy is priced at Hydro-Quebec's more costly second tier 
($0.0751/kWh), an electric boiler can provide this same service for 
$2,400.00.  Over the long term, I'm inclined to believe the gap between 
natural gas and electricity will continue to grow; if nothing else, 
electricity prices in Quebec have proven to be the far more stable of 
the two.  In addition, the installed cost of an electric boiler is 
likely to be several thousands of dollars below that of an ultra high 
efficiency condensing boiler, and the money you save going with this 
less costly option can be used to further improve your building's 
thermal envelope.

With respect to their environmental impacts, large scale hydro-electric 
projects extract an extraordinary high toll.  That said, natural gas 
fracking is an environmental nightmare in its own right.  I can't tell 
you which is the better choice in this regard.

For further reading, see: 
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/04/27/nb-fracking-study-0427.html

Cheers,
Paul


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:29:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Stewart Abbey <stewabbey at yahoo.ca>
To: Greenbuilding at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Greenbuilding] upgrading a 1959 1800 sf building in Montreal
Message-ID: <310966.69891.qm at web35901.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

"We are probably getting gas on the street this summer and I am 
considering going to a 98% efficient gas condensing boiler. That alone 
should cut the heating bill by 50%. Gas is 93 cents per cubic meter."